


Clouds in my Coffee

by starseverywhere



Category: The Good Wife
Genre: F/F, Female Character of Color, Female Characters, Female Friendship, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 05:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starseverywhere/pseuds/starseverywhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kalinda has always relied on herself. She's strong and stubborn and smart. With herself, she knows where she stands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clouds in my Coffee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gardinha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardinha/gifts).



Kalinda has always relied on herself. She's strong and stubborn and smart. With herself, she knows where she stands. She can chat and flirt her way out of almost any situation, and there's nothing like a shy smile to get information from people who don't want to give it.

She's spent long enough working with people who lie for a living to fit right in; she can twist the truth with the best of them and nod and pretend that she cares about what they need her to research. She has the ice-queen act down to a tee in the office and will happily stare anyone down who dares to suggest she has actual feelings.

And yet there's just something about Alicia that makes her want to help her, makes her want to stop and do whatever she can for this other proud, strong, damaged woman. So she goes above and beyond. She doesn't tell Alicia that she's taking up a disproportionate amount of her time. She doesn't complain when she gets sent off on what appear to be fool's errands to take photos of wires or flirt with a neighbor, she just does it and comes back with the information that lets Alicia save the day.

She's turned out to be the Robin to Alicia's Batman, and if there is one thing that Kalinda Sharma never is or thought she'd be, it's a sidekick. Somehow, when it's for Alicia, she doesn't mind.

The main part of her job is observation, watching, learning, spotting the tiny details that other people miss. She mentally notes how Alicia touches her hair when she's stressed, or that one side of her mouth quirks slightly more than the other when her smile is real versus when she's just trying to placate someone. Kalinda marvels again at how much they pay people to predict a jury when all you really need to do is sit quietly and watch; nine times out of ten that tells you everything you need to know.

Kalinda's taken to bringing Alicia coffee late at night before she leaves the building. It's something of a habit now: she'll go and pick up Alicia's favourite mug, the one that's slightly chipped, and hand over the coffee before wishing Alicia a good night. Some days, Alicia's so absorbed in what she's doing that she barely glances up, and other times Alicia will push back her chair, smile, and they'll spend ten totally normal minutes chatting about things that have nothing to do with writs, or which judge is most favourable, or expensive whores.

Those are the times that Kalinda likes best. Sometimes she imagines what it would be like if Alicia just closed the computer down, threw down her pen, grabbed her coat, and dragged her to the nearest bar. Occasionally they skip the bar and just go to straight to Kalinda's obsessively tidy flat where she imagines they'd spend hours sitting on the sofa, glasses of wine in hand, and laughing about trivialities.

Late at night, Kalinda lets herself dream of what happens after Alicia and she stop laughing, when the smiles subside and they're just sitting, looking at each other. Those are the glances that Kalinda would love to know and categorise, the softness in Alicia's eyes as she reaches out a hand to touch her cheek, the quirk of an eyebrow as she bends forward to brush a kiss across her lips. The cheeky look over her shoulder as she takes Kalinda's hand and leads her into her own bedroom.

For now though, coffee will have to do.


End file.
